This Issue

May/June 2010

"Why on earth did you … ?" asks the Voice of Authority. Mom? Dad? Teacher? Police officer (gulp)?

You feel yourself shrink back. "Um … just because?"

"You can do better than that!" thunders the V of A.

If you need quick inspiration, check out "Reasons," in which the poet challenges her boyfriend to provide the reasons why rather than the reasons why not. In "The Fretful Porpentine," Reg Simmons, a rookie teacher, yearns to understand why his student Rowena must challenge everything--especially him. Pip Matthews just wants to know why everyone has such trouble with her name. "What's in a name?" she asks in her Expressions by the same title. (She's British, so she has reason to channel Shakespeare's Juliet.)

After you've seen how others wriggle their way out of sticky situations, click on www.cicadamag.com/submitwork and check out this issue's challenge theme: Reasons Why. And while your back is against the wall, don't forget that "the heart has its reasons, of which reason knows nothing." (Chalk that one up to French philosopher Blaise Pascal.)

Also click on General Submissions (above left) for updates to our current needs for Cicada®. We are especially looking for HUMOR: satire, lighthearted romance, deadpan humor, black humor, screwball comedy, humor with heart, contemporary realism with absurdist overtones … whatever makes you smile, even if it's through your tears.

© 2010 Carus Publishing Company